Teddy doudou free pattern

In France, every small child has its doudou. I've seen all sorts of doudou - anything from an old piece of blanket or pillowcase, to an elaborate multi-coloured velours soft-toy masterpiece.

A doudou is simply an easy French name for a comfort blanket. I had an idea to make a teddy comfort blanket, using my chubby teddy pattern for the head, and adding some little arms for baby to grab too. I made it out of lovely soft organic cotton, so safe for baby to suck and easy to wash by hand or machine. For extra safety, I lined the head before stuffing it, and embroidered the face with contrasting organic cotton yarn. 

Here's the pattern:

I used one ball of organic cotton in pink and less than half a ball in cream. Of course you can choose the colour you wish, but in the pattern I mention pink and cream so you can follow it more easily.

I used a 3mm hook for the head and the arms, and a 4mm hook for the blanket part.

Head (the same as my chubby teddy pattern, but I'm repeating it here to make things easier for you)

Start with pink yarn and a magic ring

rnd 1 - 6 sc into magic ring

rnd 2 - 2 sc in each st around (12 sts)

rnd 3 - [2 sc in next st, 1 sc] rep around (18 sts)

rnd 4 - [2 sc in next st, 2 sc] rep around (24 sts)

rnd 5 - [2 sc in next st, 3 sc] rep around (30 sts)

rnd 6-8 - sc around (30 sts)

rnd 9 - [2 sc in next st] three times, sc in next 12 sts, [2 sc in next st] 3 times, sc in next 12 sts (36 sts)

rnd 10 - sc around (36 sts)

rnd 11 - sc in each of next 3 sts, [2 sc in next st] three times, sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog, sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog, sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog, [2 sc in next st] three times, sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog, sc in next 3 sts, [sc2tog] twice (36 sts)

rnd 12 - sc around (36 sts)

Change to cream yarn

rnd 13-15 - sc around (36 sts)

rnd 16 - [1sc in next 4 sts, sc2tog] rep around (30 sts)

rnd 17 - sc around (30 sts)

Now is a good time to embroider the eyes, nose and mouth with contrasting yarn or embroidery thread.

rnd 18 - [1sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog] rep around (24 sts)

rnd 19 - sc around (24 sts)

rnd 20 - [1 sc in next 2 sts, sc2tog] rep around (18 sts)

rnd 21 - [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sts] rep around (13 sts)

Stuff!

rnd 22 - [1 sc in next st, sc2tog] rep around (9 sts)

rnd 23 - [sc2tog] 4 times

Fasten off, leaving a long tail to sew the head to the blanket

Ears (make 2)

Start with pink yarn and a magic ring

rnd 1 - 6 sc into magic ring

rnd 2 - 2 sc in each st around (12 sts)

rnd 3 - sc around (12 sts)

rnd 4 - [sc2tog], rep to end (6 sts)

rnd 5 - [sc2 tog] twice

Fasten off, leaving a long tail to sew the ears to the head.

Arms (make 2)

Start with cream yarn and a magic ring

rnd 1 - 6 sc into magic ring

rnd 2 - 2 sc in each st around (12 sts)

rnd 3 - [1 sc in next 2sts, 2 sc in next st] rep around (16 sts)

rnd 4-5 - sc around (16 sts)

now join in the pink yarn and work 6 more rows of sc.

rnd 12 - 1 sc in each of next 7sts, then squeeze the arm flat and working through both thicknesses, sc into the next 7 sts until the end: Fasten off.

Blanket

For the blanket itself you can use any square pattern you like. It would be nice with a granny square or a simple trebles square. I had some problems with the joining of each round, but I'm sure you'll do better. The square should measure around 26 cm. You can find nice square patterns here:

http://yarnberry.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/first-principles-the-humble-crochet-square/

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Crochet-a-Granny-Square/

http://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-a-square/

Sewing together

Sew the ears to either side of the head, then sew the head to the middle of the blanket. Sew the arms on to the blanket, below and at either side of the head. Please follow the example of the top photo above for how to place the head and arms.

Have a lovely week!

Lemon and almond tart

This recipe is very scrumptious and quite quick and easy too. It has a shortcrust pastry base and a nice tangy lemony topping. I usually add flaked almonds too, but I didn't have any in my cupboard this time and it was still just as delicious. I use only organic ingredients and local mineral water in my pastries.

For the pastry:

200g plain white flour
80g butter
a pinch of salt
very cold water

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.

Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and add the salt/
Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the flour/salt mix, until it's all rubbed in and you have a crumbly texture.
Add very cold water a small amount at a time, until you can roll the pastry into a ball and it leaves the sides of the mixing bowl clean.
Wrap the ball of pastry and leave it in the fridge for about 15 minutes, then roll it out and cook it "blind" for about 15 minutes, until it's a bit hard but not yet browned.

For the filling:

2 eggs
125g sugar
80g melted butter
zest and juice of 2 lemons
100g ground almonds
a few flaked almonds for decoration (optional)

Whisk together the eggs and sugar until you obtain a pale, creamy mixture.
Add the melted butter, lemon zest and juice and ground almonds.
Pour the mixture into the pre-cooked pastry case.
Sprinkle with flaked almonds.
Transfer carefully to the oven (it will be quite full and the lemon mixture is rather liquid at this stage).
Let it cook for about 20 minutes, until the top is risen and golden.

You can eat it warm or cold.

Squares and stripes

As usual, I've got lots of projects on the go. Sometimes, however, I just feel like doing something new and actually finish it! That's what happened with this pink/purple square in granny stripes. I was looking through my stash and thought "hmm, these colours look nice together", and started a granny stripes square without really knowing where it was going to lead. I still don't really know what to do with it, but it's finished! It's 21 cms square and I just love it. Don't ask me why, maybe it's the colours or the texture, probably both. At the moment it's on my table being admired.

The other week I bought some lovely grey bobbly yarn in a sale, thinking I could make a cute amigurmi mouse out of it. But the sheer bobbliness of it made that impossible. It was very diffcult to use with a small hook, and any increasing or decreasing was practically invisible. So I got out my 4.5 mm hook and started to make simple sc squares. The texture of them makes a very effective washing up cloth, and with the ball of yarn I managed to make four. Yes, I know it sounds extremely boring, but this means we will spend less money on the expensive washing up sponges we've used until now. My little cloths are very kind to the  crockery but they have enough friction in them to actually remove the dirt, and they're machine washable too.

That's the wonderful thing about crochet, you can very easily just rustle something up without any special material, and even without a pattern. Bye for now!  

Free flower pattern!

Hello there!

I've not been posting much recently, but I have been crocheting. As you can see above, I've made yet another pair of baby shoes, this time in a lovely yellow cotton/bamboo mix yarn that has been sitting in my stash box for a while, waiting for me to do something with it. You can't tell from the photo, but it is quite lovely and silky and soft. When I finished the shoes I had plenty left, so I decided to make a matching hat. A quick look through the many free patterns available on Ravelry, and I found the Josie Posy pattern and crocheted it in no time! Then I needed to make a flower to decorate it with, and I remembered a flower pattern I'd used for a pram blanket when my children were babies. That meant another search, this time through my own written-up patterns, and I found it! My mother had taken the time to type up the pattern on her old Remington typewriter, it must be around 25 years ago. She typed it on very thin "typing paper" (does anyone remember that?) so I'm amazed it was still in one piece. Anyway, I decided to reproduce the pattern here, so at least if the original does get ripped or lost, I'll be able to find it here on my computer. 

You can use any size of yarn and hook as long as they correspond to each other. I mean if you use a thick yarn you'll need a big hook, and if you use a finer yarn you'll use a smaller hook, of course. It uses two colours of the same weight yarn.

This pattern uses the following stitches:

Ch = chain

ss = slip stitch

dc = double crochet (US terms) treble (UK terms)

trc = triple crochet (US)  double treble (UK)

qrc = quadruple crochet (US) triple treble (UK)

With Colour A, make 7 ch and join in a ring with a ss.

Rnd 1: 3 ch, 19 dc into the ring, join with ss in top of 3 ch.

Rnd 2: * Miss next st (1 dc, 1 trc, 3 qrc, 1 trc, 1 dc) in back loop of next st and mark this st, miss next st, ss in back loop of next st, rep. from * to end but do not mark sts. Fasten off.

With Colour B, join yarn to front loop of marked st, and work as follows:

Rnd 3: * Miss next st, 7 dc in front loop of next st, miss next st, ss in front loop of next st, rep from * to end. Fasten off.

And the winner is...

Thanks to the people who took part in my first giveaway. There were only five of you, so the chance of winning was actually rather high, but there can only be one winner:

Well done Jen! Please let me know which felt owl brooch you would like and send me your mailing address so I can send the goodies to you.

I was initially a bit disappointed at the lack of interest in the giveaway, but there again I write the blog mostly for myself and for lovely people like you! I will continue to write the blog regardless, albeit not very regularly, and will post my creations and patterns and some thoughts and recipes too for my faithful folllowers.

Anyway, this weekend I made some red baby shoes:

and I bought a lovely Longchamp bag at a car boot sale for 2 euros:

Have a lovely week.

Giveaway reminder

This is the owl keychain that's up for grabs in my first blog anniversary giveaway. It comes with your choice of owl brooch and a few other goodies. See this post for details. There's only a week left so if you want to take part, please leave a comment before 12th June!

A walk around the château

Today I went for a very pleasant walk around the Château de Voltaire. It's a lovely historic building where the philosopher Voltaire lived from 1758 until his death, and it's very close to where I live. This weekend the gardens were open to the public all day (there are usually quite restrictive opening times) and I went for a wander.

The garden isn't one of these fancy French gardens, full of sculpted bushes and fountains. It's still fairly "sauvage" and is partly surrounded by woods. The sculpted hedges I did see look rather overgrown...

and the fountain was full of weeds and looked as if it hadn't seen water for decades (centuries?). I rather liked the little statue standing in the once-was fountain.

but it was obvious that no water had been through that sprinkler for quite some time.

There were some very nice secluded parts,

and I loved this seat.

A wander down this path

Brought me to a surprise... bee hives and bee keepers!

They were busy finding the new queen in a hive in which the previous queen had left, or died, and I had a very interesting conversation with the bee-keeper.  Once they had caught the new queen, they painted a white dot on her back so that she could be easily recognised. Here she is!

We are very lucky that there is not too much pollution, and the bees have easy access to the great variety of trees in the park, all of which grow naturally and with no pesticides or other chemicals.

While we're talking about plants and insects, I wanted to share a recent photo of my strawberries... since this picture was taken they've all been eaten, but we're usually lucky enough to get a second lot later in the summer. For now, admire these beauties:

Bye bye for now, and remember to take part in my giveaway!